The Grammaticalization Of Possibility Epistemic Modal Verbs In Chinese

Language not only expresses propositional thoughts, but also expresses speakers' viewpoints, emotions, and attitudes. Modal is a category that expresses speakers' subjective attitudes. The development of modal expressions is closely related to that of the subjectivity of human language. And using modal verbs is one of the most important means of modal expressions. Among all of the modal verbs, possibility epistemic modal verbs are the most subjective one and show the highest degree of subjectification. Based on the theory of grammaticalization, the present thesis investigates the grammaticalization of possibility epistemic modal verbs of Chinese from a synchronic approach and a diachronic approach. The epistemic senses of modal verbs could be developed from the non-epistemic senses. This could be considered as the subjecitification of lexical items, and it motivated the grammaticalization of modal verbs.The possibility epistemic modal verbs of modern Chinese contain 'neng', 'hui', 'ke'neng', and 'neng'gou', among which, 'neng', 'hui', and 'nenggou' are polysemic. It is stated that the polysemy of these modal verbs is the embodiment of their grammaticalization in synchrony. Through a detailed illustration of the semantic features of each selected modal verb, the inner relationship between their different senses is investigated. It is suggested that different senses of modal verbs share a common metaphorical basis. Furthermore, a subjectification path that goes from objective senses to strong subjective senses is indicated in the metaphorical extension of the modal verbs. In order to find out the reason of the polysemy of the modal verbs, we investigated the historical development of 'neng' and 'hui'. We found that a grammaticalization process was involved in the development, and that subjecitification played an important role in this process. For example, originally 'neng' was a noun named for a kind of animal that looks like a bear. Then, it has an extensive meaning referring to a person who has transcendent ability. In pre-Qin period, it was a transitive verb, meaning 'be qualified for'. For the sake of subjective expression, the lexical 'neng' was grammaticalized into possibility epistemic modal verb by the mechanism of metaphor and metonymy. The local contexts and semantic suitability are necessary conditions for grammaticalization. Thus, mechanisms involved are emphasized by investigating the local contexts and semantic suitability in the grammaticalization of each modal verb. Finally, typological evidence from English and other languages prove that the grammaticalization cline proposed in Chinese from lexical items to possibility epistemic modal verbs also applies in some other languages, and it is a cross-linguistically phenomenon.